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North America

With a remaining gender gap of 28%, North America is the region that has made the second-most progress towards gender parity overall. However, while both countries in the region have closed more than 70% of their overall gender gap, they have also seen their overall score decrease compared to last year. Further, neither has fully closed its gender gap on the Health and Survival subindex. The Index’s revised estimated earned income scale also reveals that both countries are still recording significant gender gaps in income.

Canada (35) takes the top spot in the region, despite recording a drop in female legislators, senior officials and managers. Nevertheless, improvements have been made on Political Empowerment, with more women in parliament. The changes to the cabinet are not yet reflected in globally comparable data sources although they would clearly boost Canada’s ranking. Its gender gap in Educational Attainment has remained fully closed since 2013.

The United States (45) sees a drop in its ranking due to a decrease on its Economic Participation and Opportunity score. This is partly due to a revised estimate of the size of the gender gap in estimated earned income; however, the country’s female labour force participation has also been stagnating for a number of years, including among legislators, senior officials and managers. More positively, the United States has reached gender parity in education, highlighting the large latent talent pool in the country’s adult female population.